The Cupertino company, despite having a stacked, high-power litigation team likely settled with HTC in part because HTC is struggling in sales and isn't much of a threat. Now it may regret cutting a relatively reasonable deal with the Asian OEM, as it may look unfair and uncooperative to the judge and jury, should it reject a similar statement by Samsung.

The document in question has been labeled "Attorneys-Eyes-Only", so it is unlikely the media will get their hands on the exact licensing details; particularly after Samsung was already admonished in the last round for allegedly leaking Apple court filings to the press.

An injunction hearing will be held on Dec. 6, at which point a California district judge will decide on whether to temporarily ban U.S. sales of Apple's iPhone 5 and/or Samsung's Galaxy S III, in addition to other Samsung "Jelly Bean" products.

The judge has no legal precedent of which I am aware (and I've seen none posted online by anyone ) for such a ruling.

My question still stands. Where does this stop? Can Samsung demand to see every one of Apple's mobile licensing deals? Can Apple demand to see all of Samsung's mobile licensing deals? Can Apple demand to see all of the licenses pertaining to mobile devices Samsung has with Motorola or Google or anyone else?

Apple should not get access to the details of those deals -- ever. Similarly, Samsung should not get access to Apple's deals.

Be careful when punishing Apple and setting a precedent that could extremely easily backfire on the entire community. It is unwise.

How do any of those scenarios apply to this one? The court order is due to apple filing suit and claiming it could not license its patents as it would damage their brand. Licensing to HTC is clearly contrary to their own claims.

This is not a precedent for demanding confidential information on private licensing, this is apple caught in its own lies and the judge demanding licensing terms in order to find what apple considers to be "proper" licensing terms seeing as they've established such terms with HTC.

you're assuming that the licensing deal with HTC is about the same stuff as with Samsung. What you're forgetting though is the fact that before all this mess started, Apple approached Samsung and offered them licensing deal. Samsung rejected and got sued.

Samsung wasn't willing to take license, HTC in the end was and managed to get 'sweet' deal from Apple.

The patents in question are not FRAND ones and both HTC and Apple can charge for them whatever they want, that's why it's called cross-license agreement, they've agreed.

Samsung didn't and because of the fact that these patents are not FRAND ones, Apple can charge more or charge less Samsung for the same stuff they license to HTC.

I've never seen anywhere (at least not any reliable source) where Apple said they could not license their patents. In fact, any such a statement would be contrary to fact: Apple has a vast cross licensing deal with Microsoft that has been in place for some time that covers many, if not all, of these patents. They did say they were not willing to license them to Samsung at this time (even though Apple had originally tried to license them to Samsung).

And even if your premise were true -- which it is not -- both Apple and HTC were willing to give Samsung all the terms and conditions of that licensing agreement. They just didn't want to give out the dollar amounts. If Samsung wants to meet all the same terms and conditions, then negotiate the dollar amounts, they might be able to strike up a deal with Apple.

Many posters forget that both Apple and Samsung admit that Apple executives went to Korea to meet with Samsung about licensing Apple's patents long before the lawsuits started flying. However, both before and after the Apple-HTC deal was announced, Samsung executives have publicly stated they will never enter into a similar deal with Apple.

So if Samsung won't license from Apple, what benefit to Samsung is there in getting the details of the Apple-HTC deal? Oh, yes, its so that Samsung can rally the Apple haters around the world for Apple trying to keep details of the Apple-HTC deal private. "See, Apple continues to be a clandestine, secretive, evil company. If only Apple would tell its competitors the details of its private dealings it would be 0.000001% less evil."

So, contrary to your belief, this is not Apple caught in its own lies. Nor is it even about Samsung wanting to get the exact same deal with Apple. It is about one company demanding and getting confidential details about the dealings of competitors for no other reason than an attempt to embarrass both those competitors.

The real travesty is the cascade effect this could have on other businesses if this precedent is let stand.

quote: During the Samsung trial, Apple IP chief Boris Teksler said the company is generally willing to license many of its patents - except for those that cover what he called Apple's "unique user experience" like touchscreen functionality and design.

Then they licensed it to HTC. There is no global precedent for demanding internal licensing information no matter how lengthy your ranting.

you don't get it, do you? apple has agreement with htc. htc had to agree to provide details, they both were happy to provide licensing deals without the numbers and samsung agreed, though mentioned that it might need full details at the later stage. instead, judge decided to see it all now even though he doubts relevance to this case.

sometimes the hatred for apple and microsoft is just staggering, how about you calm down and look at facts as they are?

By denying Samsung of the terms of the Apple-HTC settlement, Judge Grewal is essentially green-lighting Apple to do whatever it pleases, anti-trust and anti-competition be damned.

Why do you find it acceptable that we as individuals must shed every last parcel of our precious privacy to get LESS security with each passing day, yet Apple - as a corporation, not an individual - can enjoy more privacy protection than the rest of us?

Apple, HTC and Samsung are all publicly-held companies. Apple refuses to license its patents to Samsung, but allows HTC the privilege. To not force Apple to disclose the terms of its settlement is to further reinforce the perception that the US justice system, much like its maligned patent system, is corrupted beyond repair.

"A politician stumbles over himself... Then they pick it out. They edit it. He runs the clip, and then he makes a funny face, and the whole audience has a Pavlovian response." -- Joe Scarborough on John Stewart over Jim Cramer